Porterville Juventus players had a once in a life time opportunity to talk with
Mexican legends and ex National players Enrique Borja and ex-Americanista
Vinicio Bravo after participating in the Toreno Mexicana prelim games where
they found themselves leading the U16 group of competition.

"If meeting them was not enough after speaking with Vinicio Bravo, there might
be the possibility of sending some of our players for tryouts in Mexican teams
like Toluca, Santos and San Luis", said coach Gilbert Hernandez. Our players
had an awesome opportunity of meeting two major icons of Mexican soccer and
after talking with Vinicio Bravo their might be the possibility of our players
tryout for Mexican teams where currently Mr. Bravo is a scout or is affiliated.
"I can speak enough of how humble and professional Mr. Vinicio Bravo is. He
went out of his way during is busy schedule (autographs, conducting a clinic,
etc) to talk to us for over an hour about insights on training youth players
and more importantly the "contacts" need in order to ask for a tryout."

Juventus players Omar Davila and Carlos Loza with Enrique
Borja

Enrique Borja
Professional soccer player in Mexico for Pumas and América and one of the most
successful goal-scorers in Mexican soccer's history. He formed part of the
Mexican National Soccer Team for the 1966 World Cup in England and the 1970
World Cup in Mexico and was selected for the “Rest of the World” soccer team in
1968 and 1971. As a businessman, he was President of Aztecas (US soccer team),
assistant to the Executive President of Televisa (1977-1981) and Vice President
of the Special Olympics for Mexico (from 1985). He was also Vice President and
Director of América's soccer schools, President of Necaxa and Tigres and
President of the Mexican Soccer Federation, as well as member of the FIFA
Organizing Committee (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) for
the Korea-Japan World Cup 2002.

The players - most attend Porterville schools with a few from Visalia - are
looking for a brighter future for themselves. That's what their three coaches
have instilled in them.

“Our goal is to try and get these kids scouted at a higher level so that they
get a free ride on scholarship. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to afford to go
to college,” coach Esmaldo Hernandez said. “Our plan for these kids is that
they get seen through the Olympic Development program or through some of these
high-ranked tournaments that we attend.

The Hernandez siblings — Alexis, 13 left, and Amber, 12 — were
selected to the state Olympic Development Teams for their age group. They
started playing at a young age. (Recorder photo by Chieko Hara)

“What we noticed here in the Valley is that there is a high level of talent but
nobody takes them anywhere.”

Esmaldo along with his brothers Gilbert and Juan Hernandez have taken it upon
themselves to try and get these athletes to another level not only athletically
but academically as well by coordinating the under-15 Porterville Juventus
Soccer Club.

The idea behind the club team was for the players to be scouted by Division I
schools from across the country but with some emphasis on the West Coast
considering the team isn't exactly wealthy.

The exposure is already beginning to bare fruit with Esmaldo Hernandez's two
children, Alexis and Amber. Both made the state ODP teams and each has schools
looking at them and they're only 12 and 13-years-old, respectively.

“That's exciting [to be looked at],” Amber Hernandez, who plays club ball for
the Bakersfield Gunners yet will practice with her dad's team, said. “I think
it's great what my dad's doing because the guys get exposed and they should
really appreciate that.”

Getting players noticed is the main reason why the coaches take the team to
some of the top-tier tournaments across the state. From Irvine to as north as
Turlock, the team travels so that the players are seen and scouted.

“I've had good experiences with this team. It's been fun,” Cardenas, a
sophomore sweeper and in his second year with the team, said. “These coaches do
a lot for us. We want to pay them back with hard work. I've been thinking about
the scholarship and doing well in school. I didn't think about it before I got
to this team. It would be big for my future if I got the scholarship.

“We're here to give our town a name. We have to represent. We're starting to
get known for our skills and talent.”

Porterville Juventus SC has represented itself so well that there has been talk
- it's in the early stages - of starting a Chivas USA soccer academy for
Porterville and the surrounding communities.

“They're trying to develop what they have in Mexico which are academies,”
Gilbert Hernandez said. “What we're looking at is starting from ages 5 to 18.
They'll offer us they're method of teaching and their name because they want to
start forming all-star teams.

“If we're able to showcase these kids to professional teams then it works.”

Things didn't start all that great when the team was born five years ago as an
AYSO team. The Hernandez brothers were taking the team to the bigger
tournaments and there wasn't much respect given to the team.

“A couple of years back it was who is Porterville and where is it?” Esmaldo
Hernandez said. “We've met a lot of people such as Steve Sampson, Landon
Donovan and Paul Caliguiri. Now when you mention Porterville Juventus, they
know who we are.”

Now with the winning has come exposure for the players. And amazingly enough,
in this day and age of greedy professionals and over-enthusiastic parents,
that's all these coaches want out of it along with the satisfaction of teaching
a game to players who want to listen.

“It's great to play for them. It's the best team in the Valley,” said Campos, a
sophomore forward. “It's great that these coaches care about us and want us to
be seen. I've learned to play soccer better and go to school.”

There are no aspirations of becoming these players' future agents or wanting
the headlines to read that it's all about the Hernandez brothers.

No these brothers take pleasure in the fact that the players will someday
fulfill their dream of playing Div. I soccer at schools like UC Santa Barbara,
Chico State, Cal Poly-SLO, UC Irvine or even UCLA.

Most of the players don't even pay to be on the team and all the expenses are
covered by the three coaches through fund-raising, sponsors and a small group
of parents.

“Most other coaches, if we didn't pay, they'd fold the team,” Willy Hernandez,
a forward who's been with the team for a year and is unrelated to the coaches,
said. “They're just trying to help us get out of Porterville and take us to
another place. They're good coaches.”

The team also has its own personal Web site,
www.geocities.com/portervillejuventus, that has news and notes on the comings
and goings of the team along with a roster and schedule of upcoming
tournaments.

“This is a good thing for us because coaches and scouts from colleges get to
see us,” Hernandez said. “I get to touch the ball here and make more passes
where in high school, it's just long ball. I love soccer. It keeps me from
being bored, away from drugs and when I'm down, I play soccer and it makes me
feel good.”

Hernandez added he most likely would have settled for a lesser college had he
not joined Porterville Juventus.

“I was going to go to college but by playing with this team, I have more
choices,” Hernandez said. “I want to go to Chico State because they have a
degree in law enforcement and that's what I want to go into.

“If I hadn't been with this team, people told me I probably could have played
at Fresno-Pacific. But I wanted to set my goals higher to an even better
college so that's why I came here.”

For the second tournament in a row the Porterville Juventus SC were in the
final of one of the best and most prestigious tournaments of Southern
California. Last November the team was in the final at the Nike Harvest Cup
against Reno Moondogs and this past weekend against West Coast FC.

In pool play Juventus was the 1st place team out of their bracket after beating
Flyers Pumas 3-0, Celtic Hoops 2-1, and falling 2-1 against FC Barcelona. In
the semifinal against Celtic Harps they were able to pull out the win in
penalties because regulation time ended in a 2-2 tie.

In the championship game West Coast used the speed of their forwards and
Juventus would finally give up the game winner 1-0.

It was a good showing for the team when you consider it was the first
tournament after the 3 month break and the addition of new players plus the
absence of 3 players.

Hernandez siblings are selected to the State Soccer Olympic Development Program

This past weekend the sibling duo of Alexis and Amber Hernandez were selected to
the State CYSA North Soccer Olympic Development Program in their respective age
groups. After numerous tryouts at the district and state level, they are in a
pool of the top 22 players to be selected to represent Northern California at
the numerous national and international tournaments.

The Olympic Development Program is a national process for identifying and
developing the best youth soccer players. The process promotes players to the
U.S. National Teams, which represent the United States in international
competition, such as the Youth World Cup and the Olympics and eventually
results in becoming members of the teams who represent the US at the World Cup.

The process begins by trying out for the CYSA District 7 ODP team. Then players
have to compete against other district ODP teams while being observed by state
ODP coaches before they are selected and invited to the final tryout.

Alexis was amongst 76 prospective male soccer players born in 1992 who were
invited to the state final tryout, while Amber was selected amongst 69 female
players born in 1993.

The final selection consists of four sessions and at the end of each session
players are cut to finally reach a roster of 22 players. In order to make each
cut players must receive numerous votes from different coaches in order to be
selected onto the teams. Putting it into prospective they have each been
selected over 200 players by ODP coaches of which many are college coaches and
ex-professional soccer players. One can say they are amongst the top 22 players
in Cal North at their respective age groups.

The siblings success can be attribute to their hard work of training 3 times a
week with the Porterville Juventus SC, and the level of competition and
international experience they have gained by playing abroad in Europe. While
playing for Porterville Juventus, Alexis has always been playing up 2-3 years,
which means he is always playing against players who are bigger and stronger.
He has already played in tournaments in Sweden, Holland, and England. Amber on
the other hand can always be found taking part in the Juventus practices with
boys 3-5 years older than her. When she is not practicing with Porterville
Juventus she is making the hour trip to practice with the Bakersfield Gunners
twice a week.

Alexis and Amber are students at Burton Middle School and are children of
Esmaldo and Miriam Hernandez of Porterville. Esmaldo along with his brothers
Gilbert and Juan Hernandez are coaches for Porterville Juventus Soccer Club.

Because of the travel to ODP practices in San Jose and San Francisco plus the
out of state traveling to competitions, if anyone or any organization is
willing to help out with donations please contact 793-1109 or email:
esmaldoh@hotmail.com.

Juventus close out year with a 2nd place at the prestigous 2005 Nike Harvest Cup.

Year 2005 for the Porterville Juventus SC was a year full of ups and downs but
if there is any questions if it was a successful year for the team you can
just take a look at the 4th place Cal North ranking given to them by the
National Soccer Ranking and the 5th place Cal North ranking assigned to
them by GotSoccer.com and more recently their 2nd place finish at the
prestigous NIKE Harvest Cup featuring some of the best team in the nation.
Locally we don't have to look to far to see the success of this club when you
find numerous Juventus soccer players playing varsity soccer at Porterville
High, Granite Hills, and Golden West high schools, some of those players
are just freshmen.

The main goal since the begining for Juventus has been to
expose their players to as many college coaches and soccer personalities
for the chance of being offered a college scholarships. The exposure is
there already as they have already met or had contact with Steve Sampson
(ex US and Costa Rica, national coach), Paul Caliguri (ex US National
player and Cal Poly Ponoma head coach), Landon Donovan (US National and LA
Galaxy player) , Andrew Ziemer (Sonoma State), Benjamin Ziemer
(Ajax America scout), and Chivas Guadalajara personnel like Salvador Reyes
(ex-player), Dennis te Kloese (Director of Soccer) and Arturo "el Cura" Chaires
(ex-player).

This year seeking more competition than the one offered to them at their age
group in District 7 CYSA league play, the team decided to play
up a year to prepare them for the tough schedule of college showcase
tournaments which they had scheduled year around. In the end,
playing against the bigger and stronger teams from the Valley would
eventually pay off for the team.

All the hard work and frustration would finally pay off for the team with
a 2nd place finish this past Thanksgiving weekend at the prestigous NIKE
Harvest Cup put on by the Irvine Strikers held in and around Irvine. At
the tournament they played Sparta Premier (Utah), NHB Black (Cal South),
Irvine Strikers (Cal South), SC De Sol (Arizona), and Reno Moondogs (NV). In
group play, Juventus was the 1st place team after beating Sparta Premier
from Utah on Friday, 3-1 with goals coming from William "Willy" Hernandez
and Abraham Campos. In the afternoon game they played NHB Black, a
team that for the past 2 years they had played numerous time but had never been
able to beat but this time with goals from Hernandez and Nicholas
Cardenas, they would come away with a 3-2 win. On Saturday, they
would play against Irvine Strikers, one of the nation's best team and
with a goal from Hernandez and a last minute goal by the Strikers the game
ended in a 1-1 draw. In the semi final Juventus would eventually play
against Arizona's #1 team in SC del Sol and yet again they would give up a
last minute goal for a 2-2 tie which would eventually push the
game to be decided by penalty kicks. Juventus would eventually win after
goalie Junior Toscano stopped 3 goals and shooters Hernandez, Juan Escobar,
Alexis Hernandez, Ivan Yanez and goalie Junior Toscano converting their
penalty kicks. The final was set against Reno Moondogs at UC Irvine where
all finalist teams would have the opportunity to meet and talked to US National
Soccer and LA Galaxy star Landon Donovan who was on hand for
the championship games. In the final, Willy Hernandez would score
twice and the team would never be behind until 5 minutes left in the
game when again they would give up a late goal which would
eventually push the game into two 5 minute sudden
death half. Four minutes into the first sudden death half, Reno
would score on an individual play from the left side of the field which would
end Juventus run for the title. The team has nothing to be ashame of
especially when you consider they played some of the best teams from Arizona,
Utah, Nevada and California.

Eventhough the team never went with its full squad to numerous college showcase
tournaments because of a reason or another, they were still able to
come away with victories against some of the toughest team
in Southern California and the nation. When you consider Juventus has
players as young as 13-14 years, it is a great accomplishment because
mostly all other teams they have played are "age pure" teams,
meaning all their players were either 15 or 16.

"I personally and I know I speak for the other coaches Esmaldo and Juan
Hernandez, would like to thank all Juventus players, parents, fans and sponsors
who have been with us through all the ups and downs that we have endured this
year", says coach Gilbert Hernandez.

What is in store for Juventus you might ask? Well after the high school
season is over, they are already eyeing tournaments in Las Vegas
and Phoenix for the months of Feburary and March. In April, they
will compete for the 2006 Cal North State Cup against 80 other teams of which
they were quarterfinalist this year. In the near future they
are planning to travel to tournaments in Europe and Mexico depending
on funding and donations.

With a 3-0 penalty kick shutout victory over DeAnza Earthquakes Red, the
Porterville Juventus have advanced to play in Morgan Hill at the 2005 State Cup
Round of 16. In the shootout, Juventus goalkeeper Diego Mendoza stopped 2
penalty kicks after DeAnza's first kicker kicked the ball wide. Juventus
shooters were Abraham Campos, Juan Escobar and Alexis Hernandez.

In Group C play, Juventus tied 1-1 against DeAnza, and then came back with two
impressive victory 11-0 and 7-0 over Hertiage Voo Doo and Bullard United
Flyers.

Nick Cardenas and Alexis Hernandez found the European zeal for soccer to be an
accurate stereotype. "Everywhere you look, it's soccer," Nick said of Sweden
and the Netherlands. "Everywhere. They have street soccer like we have
basketball courts."

The pair of Porterville Juventus team members were scouted during their
California Youth Soccer Association (CYSA) games - played statewide - and
chosen to try out at the University of San Francisco for the United States'
13-and-under team.

Representing the U.S., Nick Cardenas, 13, left, and Alexis Hernandez,
12, went to Europe and won the Holland tournament. The two boys are members of
the Porterville Juventus. Cardenas and Hernandez were selected for the elite
team from over 200 soccer players.

Representing the U.S., Nick Cardenas, 13, left, and Alexis Hernandez, 12, went
to Europe and won the Holland tournament. The two boys are members of the
Porterville Juventus. Cardenas and Hernandez were selected for the elite team
from over 200 soccer players.

There, they were deemed worthy of global competition.

Nick, a 13-year-old from Bartlett Middle School, and Alexis, a 12-year-old from
Burton Middle School, were not aware they were being scouted for the team
scheduled to represent the United States in the Holland World Cup and Gothia
Cup, held in Sweden.

To secure spots on the team, they had to compete each weekend against 240 youth
soccer players from around the nation for seven straight weeks at USF - turning
their parents into part-time chauffeurs.

But it paid off, as the parents got to accompany the team - and other parents -
on the July 9 flight to Europe, relieving them of their chauffeuring duties and
transforming them into tourists and patriotic fans.

"As parents, we thought we were going to get beat bad," said Esmaldo Hernandez,
Alexis' father and coach of the Porterville Juventus. "The level of soccer was
far superior. You could definitely tell the difference. It was a lot more
competitive."

But that didn't prevent the American squad from winning, as the team took first
place in the Holland World Cup and made it to the third round of the Gothia Cup
before Germany - the team with a 6-foot-4-inch player - eliminated them.

"I was the biggest kid on the team, and I was smaller than all their players,"
Nick, a 5-foot-3-inch 97-pound player said.

Nick, a fullback, and Alexis, a forward, found that the style of soccer played
by the rest of the world resembled American football.

Highlights of the tournament was playing against CDO Elite 91, in a game where
Juventus created more opportunities to score but just couldn't put one in. Most
of the second half Juventus had CDO Elite 91 against their backs with the ball
on CDO Elite side of the field. "This was definately a game we should of won",
said Gilbert Hernandez.